Tewaaraton Candidate Baum Set For Big Stage of Face-Off Classic

In 2012, ahead of the Konica Minolta Face-Off Classic, we were all excited to see a matchup between the two presumed front-runners for the Tewaaraton Trophy.

Cornell's Rob Pannell and Virginia's Steele Stanwick — both of whom graced the cover of the February 2012 issue of Inside Lacrosse — were set to face off in the Face-Off Classic and put two Tewaaraton candidates on center stage in front of the big crowd at M&T Bank Stadium. Then, Pannell went down with a foot injury, and despite a stellar season from Stanwick, a highly-regarded but less-publicized player from the west took DI by storm.

That player is Peter Baum.

Fans will get their chance to see him on the big stage of M&T Bank Stadium this Saturday. The Tewaaraton candidate and his Colgate Raiders face Navy in the first game of the doubleheader. Face-off is 2 p.m. Johns Hopkins plays Virginia in the next game. Tickets are available to see the potential Tewaaraton winner; more info on the event is available here.

And to update, here's what Baum's done so far: The Raiders sit at 6-2. Baum leads the team in goals with 23, assists with 11 and points with 34 total.

Here's Baum's story from that issue.

5 Stars: Portland Project

By Matt Kinnear, originally published October 2012

When Peter Baum was a kid in the Northwest, there wasn’t organized lacrosse for elementary schoolers. The future Tewaaraton Trophy winner from Portland, Ore., didn’t start playing until sixth grade, but by high school he knew he wanted to play high-level college lacrosse. He had some catching up to do, and that meant playing as much as possible.

“When I read these lacrosse experts talk about how important it is to play multiple sports in high school, I played one sport in high school,” Baum says. “One sport and one sport only, and I think it’s worked out pretty well for me.”

How He Got to Colgate

Baum played soccer and ice hockey as a kid, but put down the skates in order to play lacrosse year-round in the nice weather out West. His work paid off, and he became a late-blooming star on the recruiting trail and the key piece for the Raiders’ surge to the 2012 NCAA Tournament.
It’s been a theme for Baum’s lacrosse career: He may start from behind, but he consistently ends up at the head of the pack.

“When I grew up, the kids back East were two-sport athletes,” says Richard Baum, Peter’s dad and a 1978 Colgate alum who lived on Long Island as a teenager. “You had a lot of football players that also played lacrosse. I don’t think those kids have the same love for lacrosse. Peter committed to it and gave up other sports to just concentrate on lacrosse.”

Scott Hochstadt saw that drive in Baum when he came into the West Coast Starz system in eighth grade. Baum wasn’t the best yet, but he wanted to be.

“He just was the kind of kid who always asked questions and was kind of annoying, always wondering how far he could take his game,” says the West Coast Starz founder.

At Lincoln High (Ore.), Baum’s friends Patrick Rogers (Denver) and Aaron Prosser (Drexel) pushed him more into the sport. Baum and his father knew he was a good lacrosse player, but thought his ceiling might be a DIII NESCAC school. Hochstadt put Baum on a B-level team between his sophomore and junior seasons, but within a year he was among the best in the Starz program, and elite DI teams were calling with offers.

“From that day on, he probably didn’t stop shooting,” Hochstadt says of Baum being relegated to the B-team. “He came back and was just running by people.”

Baum first verbally committed to Bucknell in his junior year. Colgate, also his mother’s alma mater, had made offers but hadn’t assured significant scholarship money until Baum emerged later in his high school and club careers. He switched his commitment to the Raiders at about the time Virginia, Duke and Maryland called.

“Every season we had, he just kept growing as a player,” Hochstadt says. “His senior summer, we took him to some of the team tournaments back East. He was the best player at every single event we went to.”

How He Became a Star

At Colgate, individual accomplishments came early for Baum. Running with the first midfield line under then-coach Jim Nagle, Baum set the Colgate freshman scoring record with 29 goals in 2009. As a sophomore, Baum had a team-high 49 points, but team success was the priority.

“We were a little concerned after his freshman year that he was never going to play in the NCAA Tournament,” Richard Baum says.
Enter coach Mike Murphy and a new staff before Baum’s junior season. The Raiders went 14-4, earned an NCAA Tournament berth and Baum won the 2012 Tewaaraton and USILA Lt. Raymond J. Enners Award.

“They just made all the difference in the world,” Baum says of the new staff. “They gave us so much freedom to play offensively.”
Murphy says Baum and offensive coordinator Mike Abbott are “kindred spirits,” and compares Baum’s ability as a hyrbrid player to that of Matt Danowski and Ned Crotty. Hochstadt says Baum has a first step like Casey Powell and credits his speed for setting him apart in college. The extra work he puts in is well-documented; Hochstadt says while living with him over the summer, Baum was already out shooting before breakfast

“He’s the hardest worker on his team,” Murphy says, also noting Baum’s ability to get his teammates involved on the field, evidenced by his 30 assists last season. “He works really hard on his game individually, but when he does these things he’s bringing a guy with him. He knows what buttons to push with his teammates, but he’s not going to push them all the time.”

Baum was one of the first people Murphy talked to when he got the Colgate job, calling Baum from the Tewaaraton banquet in Washington, D.C., while attending with finalist Jeremy Boltus, one of Murphy’s players at Army.

“I’ve watched you play for two years. I’ve watched Jeremy play. You can be down in D.C. with the potential to win this thing,” Murphy said in that conversation.

Baum replied: “I don’t care about winning the Tewaaraton. I just want to win as a team.”

In 2012, he did both.

More Quotes on Baum

On his emergence as one of the best in the game:He's always been a good shooter lefty-righty. He's been a solid shooter. But his speed has increased, and that's just through hard work off the field. Whatever he's doing on his own, he's doing the right thing. I think his speed is what has set hiim apart. ... He kinda has that burst that Casey (Powell) had all through college. I brought that up to a couple of guys and they all agree. That's a pretty big compliment.— Scott Hochstadt

On why he hasn't burned out from playing lacrosse-only for so long:You have to sort of balance putting all that time in it and still loving the sport and not getting burnt out. ... Sometimes I laugh because it shouldn't be fun still. Theres something about lacrosse. It's the people that I've met playing...I've been really lucky to have friends who have been on every team. I keep waiting to burn out but it hasn't happened.—Baum

On Scott Hochstadt, Xander Ritz and the West Coast Starz:They do so much for west coast lacrosse and for all the kids that get recruited out of here....The fact that these kids come from so many western states and they know them all by face. They've spoken to coaches. I think they have everything to do with me getting recruited.— Baum

On his son loving to play, using a basketball analogy:It's the difference between Kevin Durant and Greg Oden. The real difference between those guys is Durant loves to play basketball. Greg Oden doesn't. He was good and big, but he just doesn't like to play. Peter just loves it. He's a KD-type gym rat. A total lax rat.— Richard Baum, Peter's father

On Peter focusing on just lacrosse in high school:A lot of coaches say that they really like the multi-sport athletes, the kids that play basketball and soccer. I can understand where they come from, but at least in Peter's case, working at (larosse) all year round helps too.— Richard Baum

On Baum's work ethic:He just works his ass off. He lived with me last summer. I'd wake up to go get breakfast, and he'd already be running on the beach.— Hochstadt